Shirley Manson and her band are celebrating 20 years of their breakthrough album “Version 2.0” with a tour that just stopped in Cologne. GARBAGE is a band you shouldn’t miss if they come to town – but if you did, here’s all about the unique evening in Cologne.

GARBAGE’s tour support: DREAM WIFE opened the evening perfectly.

GARBAGE are well-known for their unique supporting acts since they give small bands a chance to show the audience what they can do. This time they had the British trio DREAM WIFE as a support act to make the crowd ready to rock with GARBAGE.

The band formed around the Icelandic singer Rakel Mjöl fit perfectly into the evening. Musically, it’s hard to describe what genre this band fits into – it’s some kind of Punk-Rock and Indie-Rock with a little bit of pop music. All that performed with colorful outfits and a bright light show. It’s really hard to describe, but one thing is for sure: DREAM WIFE rock the stage! With their look and how they act on stage, you can see the similarities to Shirley Manson and GARBAGE and why they fit so well into this evening.

DREAM WIFE was able to get the audience’s attention very fast. They put on quite a unique performance – one just can’t stop watching. It’s so much fun to see them rocking the stage. You can see they have fun and this is what jumps over to the crowd. With DREAM WIFE, GARBAGE truly found a perfect match for their tour and the audience visibly agrees. The band played around 30 minutes with an amazing light-show, which supports the whole performance. Great band, great show – a great start to an unforgettable evening.

For GARBAGE-frontwoman Shirley Manson age is just a number.

After a 30-minute break to make the stage ready for GARBAGE, the show started. The crowd was totally ready for the Band and started screaming with the first tones of “Afterglow”. And with the appearance of Shirley Manson, it got even louder! What a woman! She looked like a 20-year-old in her oversized shirt and fishnet tights with silver glitter all over. Add that outfit to Manson‘s undercut hair styled in high pigtails and red makeup – what an amazing appearance!

And what a role model in times where everything is about the perfect look and how to fit best in society. She encourages the opposite: wear what you want, look how you want and don’t pay too much attention to others’ opinions!

With over 20 years of stage experience, the band, and especially Shirley, knows how to put on a great show. And one part of that is the perfect set list. It was an anniversary tour for the “Version 2.0” album, so twelve of the 23 songs performed came from this album. Also two covers and the Bond-song “The World Is Not Enough” were added to the list. For sure hits like “Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)” or “No Horses” must be played and they weren’t missing from the setlist.

The first 45 minutes GARBAGE played their songs without a break to talk to the audience. This was a little bit sad because it seemed like they only were doing their job. But then Shirley started talking regularly after the songs and the feeling of “just doing their job” faded. Another sad thing was that all band members, except Shirley, stood in the dark and got almost no light. Maybe they don’t want to get any attention because I saw them do the same thing three years ago at their concert in Cologne. It’s still upsetting because it’s a band and the audience wants to see them all and they all deserve to get attention.

To continue the list of “bad things”: Shirley didn’t play guitar due to technical problems during “You Look So Fine”. But that’s live music. Everything can happen and the band handled it great and in a funny way. They discussed on stage whose mistake it was and came to the result that it was the fault of them all.

Breath-taking words from Shirley Manson and a really touching moment at GARBAGE-show in Cologne.

At the end of the show, instead of GARBAGE playing the encore like usual, Shirley started talking about suicide before they played “The Trick Is To Keep Breathing”. She told the audience, that the bus had been stopped some days ago in front of a bridge because there was a person trying to take their own life. She continued and opened up about a family member that took their life in the past. Also, she pointed out that so many people have recently died because of mental health problems.

You could hear in her voice that it really touched her and it was absolutely quiet in the whole venue. And she is right. Still in 2018 people get bullied at work or at school, still depression is not taken seriously, still it’s hard to get help even if you reach out for it. There is still so much to do to educate people. Very breath-taking words from the frontwoman, a really touching moment. GARBAGE then played the last three songs of their show and after almost two hours it was over.

All in all, it was a great show and evening. Somehow the audience was a little bit shy and distant. If I compare it with the show three years ago, back then there was much more party – but maybe that was because they played all the hits and this time it was a celebration of an album. Nevertheless, this show was a great one, with a great set list, great lighting, great sound, and the audience went home with happy faces.

To see all photos, please visit my Flickr.Have you seen GARBAGE live? Did you like it? Tell us in the comments!

Yvonne Otte is a concert photographer from Düsseldorf. She prefers Symphonic Metal, but listens to and photographs artists from many different genres. Known on social media by her handle “Photographyve”.